To sustain hope while preserving honesty is the challenge in treating cancer patients

“You know I am going to beat this.”
“No, you aren’t,” I think despondently.
“With a positive attitude and determination,” he adds.
“Then you’d be the first,” I silently retort.
A successful retired engineer, he is one of those who don’t fall ill until catastrophe strikes.
He had gone to the doctor feeling vaguely unwell and inherited a cancer diagnosis, and with it, an endless series of investigations. For a while, his surgeon sat on the fence – although the primary abdominal cancer was technically operable he had a hunch that the tiny, indeterminate nodules on the lung represented... read more

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